Erin Smith, culinary director for the concepts’ parent company, Clumsy Butcher, was also involved in the menu re-do.

What to expect on the Hay Merchant lineup? Well, waffles, for one unexpected thing. Shepherd was determined to have at least one round-the-clock breakfast item on the menu, so waffles with eggs, sausage and molasses syrup may well fill that slot.

The McAnear hire “is a good reunion for us,” says Clumsy Butcher partner Bobby Heugel. He and McAnear go way back.

McAnear’s last major Houston posting before Triniti was as executive sous chef for Scott Tycer’s high-end tasting menu restaurant, Textile. But he and Heugel met earlier in the Aughts at Benjy’s, where McAnear was sous chef and Heugel was tending bar.

“Dax got me excited about things again,” says Heugel, who was going through a fallow period at the time. “We left Benjy’s together and went to Beaver’s,” the latter-day icehouse from Monica Pope that ended up changing Houston cocktail culture and fueling the trend to a more casual kind of smart Gulf Coast dining.

McAnear had previously been announced as chef de cuisine for Hildebrand’s upcoming restaurant, Brande, in the former Ruggles Grill space on Westheimer near Montrose, which is scheduled to open this fall.